By Dr. Michael Brown
As the subject of deliverance and demons has come front and center in recent days, I wanted to state clearly what I do and do not believe, in keeping with the views I have held for decades.
Nefarious is a Christian movie with a twist: It’s being called a horror flick as it revolves around the story of a demon-possessed man on death row called Nefarious, played by Christian actor Patrick Flanery. In his review of the movie for Digital Journal, Markos Papadatos described the movie as riveting and gave it a rating of 4.5 out of 5. “Most importantly, ‘Nefarious’ is a movie that will certainly spark serious conversations with viewers once it’s over,” Papadatos pointed out. The movie script was written by Christian filmmakers Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman who also wrote God is not Dead and Unplanned. The movie centers around the interaction between an atheist psychiatrist, Dr. James Martin, played by Christian actor Jordan Belfi, and Nefarious. Though he doesn’t believe in demons or demon possession, Martin has been called in to evaluate Nefarious’ mental health as he is scheduled to be executed for murdering 11 people. If found insane, Nefarious would avoid execution. During the interview, Nefarious reveals itself as a demon and Martin is forced to …
In a recent interview on BBC Radio 4 podcast, a geneticist, who said he ‘doesn’t believe in ghosts,’ described his encounter with an ‘evil spirit’ while attending Queen’s University in Belfast, Ireland during the 1960s.
This is something we should all do: decide. Do you believe that spiritual things exist? … or not? If we believe in God, who is a spirit, we should accept that other spirits also exist. The Bible is full of stories about God, and other spirit beings. That includes angels who work for God, and angels who are the enemies of God; demons. I want to add a disclaimer; this is not about mental illness or dramatic Hollywood movies. I have met people with mental health problems, that can be managed. That is an interesting topic, but it’s not the topic here. Also, we probably all know the movie where the little girl spits at a priest exorcist, and spins her head around. That is entertainment. The actual influence of demons, including possession, was a scary topic before the movie came out. A few days ago, I learned something that is real, and scary, and close to me. We had a neighbor, a few years ago. She seemed like a nice person, and a good …
In this interview, Wayne Johnston tells about his encounter with demon and a later encounter with a Godly angel. As a result of these two encounters, Wayne concludes that many Christians have an unhealthy fear of the demonic.
There is a strange story in the Old Testament talking about a battle that took place between Israel and Moab. Found in 2 Kings 3, we are told that Israel had the kingdom of Moab in subjection. As a vassal, the Moabites paid an annual tax to Israel of 100,000 lambs and the wool from 100,000 sheep. The reason was obvious, we are told that Mesha, the King of Moab, was a breeder of sheep (verse 3) and had obviously developed a unique breed that was in demand. By this time, Israel had split apart into two nations, Samaria (Israel) and Judah. King Ahab of Israel had just died and King Mesha decided this was an opportune time to break free from Israel’s domination. Undoubtedly, Israel became aware of the problem when Mesha refused to pay the tribute. So Jehoram, the new King of Israel contacted King Jehoshaphat of Judah and an unnamed King of Edom to help Jehoram bring Moab back into submission. Obviously, it was in everyone’s best interest to keep Moab under …
In an earlier post, I talked about Jesus delivering a man possessed by a legion of demons in an area called the Gadarenes. What I didn’t talk about is the bizarre request this horde of demons made to Jesus. Mark writes about the encounter in his gospel. He notes that the deliverance is a bit unusual, because the demons didn’t immediately leave when Jesus commanded them, which had been standard practice up to this point: 8 For He had been saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9 And He was asking him, “What is your name?” And he *said to Him, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” 10 And he began to implore Him earnestly not to send them out of the country. (Mark 5:8-10 NASV) Because the spirit was able to initially resist, Jesus asked for its name and even that was not provided right away. But Christ had authority, and the evil spirit finally buckled and coughed up its name. It called itself Legion, “for we are many.” At …
The case of demonic possession reported in Gary, Indiana seems like it was a long, lost script from the Exorcist, except in this case the demonic actions were witnessed by secular members of society — police officers, medical staff (including a doctor) and welfare officials. Some of the strange happenings included a child walking up the wall backwards which was seen by a Registered Nurse and a manager for Indiana’s Department of Child Services (DCS). The case involves Latoya Ammons and her three children, a girl 12, and two boys aged 9 and 7 all of whom were reportedly possessed by evil spirits.
OpentheWord.org 